UKTV Corporate Site

UKTV moves in with Honey I Bought The House

6 August 2015

Award-winning media company UKTV has greenlit independent production company Objective Productions/Crook Productions to make a full series of factual entertainment show Honey I Bought the House (8 x 60') for its premium pay entertainment channel Watch, following the show's pilot last autumn.

Honey I Bought The House sprung out of UKTV's Format Labs initiative, a call out to independent production companies to pitch innovative factual entertainment formats for bold new ideas.

Factual entertainment format Honey I Bought The House is a nail-biting approach to the reality of buying a first home, which sees couples given a £15,000 deposit to get them on the property ladder. The only catch is they are separated immediately and one has three weeks to secure a property - or they lose the money. The hunt is on for the perfect home. Will their partner be thrilled with their new property and sign the mortgage papers, or risk losing that precious deposit?

Senior Commissioning Editor, Hilary Rosen, said, "Commissioning pilots for Formats Labs gave us the opportunity to trial a number of ideas and take risks. It also meant we were able to hone the format of Honey I Bought The House before growing the show to series. Each episode delivers comic insight into the vastly differing ideas that many couples have about what makes an ideal home. We see how one person's dream house is another's worst nightmare, as we tell the story of the struggle to buy the perfect property for their other half."

Steve North, General Manager for Watch commented,

Our audience are great fans of the property genre and this new show takes the format to another level. For those buying it is a major life event and one that can provide wonderful moments of emotional insight, especially when you have two people buying a house with different wish lists. This all makes for compelling viewing.

Matt Crook, CEO of Crook Productions said,

It's incredibly satisfying helping people get on the property ladder but to be able to give viewers a gripping watch at the same time is fantastic. The thrill and fear that comes with buying your first house is nail-biting for anyone but hopefully we'll see eight new happy home-owners with Honey.

New programming on Watch this year includes the hotly-anticipated Singing in the Rainforest, which sees musicians travel across the globe to meet remote tribes and create an extraordinary music track together, as well as hit fantasy drama Grimm.

Honey I Bought The House is commissioned by UKTV's Senior Commissioning Editor, Hilary Rosen, and ordered by Watch's General Manager, Steve North. Matt Crook and Andrew Newman are Executive Producers for Objective/Crook, with Sarah Wood Series Producer.

ENDS

About Watch

Where to find Watch: Sky 109 (HD)/155 and Virgin 125 (HD)/124
On demand on Sky and Virgin

Watch is an entertainment channel that promises to surprise with out-of-the-ordinary programming. Premiering hit fantasy and science-fiction dramas such as The Strain, Grimm and Beauty and the Beast, it also showcases a selection of distinctive series like Doctor Who, David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities and Masterchef Australia. Watch is the exclusive home of Dynamo: Magician Impossible, an award winning original commission from UKTV.

About UKTV

UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches 42 million viewers a month.

UKTV's eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, Watch, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food - include the most popular non-PSB channel in the UK and account for 9% of the British commercial TV market. The company's most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £283m and EBITDA of £74.1m. It invested £123m in programming and related launches last year, and is becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.

UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC, alongside programmes originally shown on ITV and Channel 4. The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.

Now celebrating its 22nd year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British television broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.